Almighty Video Game Designer

-Game and Virtual Reality Committee-

Video games in this world weren't governed by the National Radio and Television Administration, but the Game Committee.

They might seem like they perform similar tasks, but they were actually very different. The National Radio and Television Administration focused on reviewing games, picking out violent, sexual, or otherwise riding on legal loopholes would be filtered and developers would be asked to make amendments.

But the Game Committee did much more than that.

The reviewing process in this world had a tiered system and overall much looser restrictions. Many violent games are allowed, and the changes required might only include changing the age restriction.

Moreover, the Game Committee's main purpose wasn't to screen games, but to control and regulate the gaming industry to allow the gaming and virtual reality technology to be developed better.

Normally the Game Committee would never differentiate games based on how profitable they were, and would never give a game an upper hand just because they were more profitable.

The Game Committee cared more about innovative games, and would help genres that were struggling. AT the same thing, they would also provide support and guidance for anything related to virtual reality.

The Game Committee was currently in a meeting going through the judging process of the event.

As there were a lot of games, the games went through a preselection before having the opportunity to be reviewed.

Moreover, the judges could never be able to play all the games from start to finish. The designers prepared tools to allow them to make changes to the attributes and story branches. The games with a more complicated story were even required to deliver a script.

"We can consider the other prizes later, but the first place is between Tale of the Sword and Wulin Legend, anyone else have opposing opinions?" asked the host of the meeting.

"No problem," replied the other members.

"Alright, then let's discuss which game is better deserving of first place."

—

As the Game Committee members were discussing, the players were also downloading the game and playing it.

Tale of the Sword and Wulin Legend were essentially neck to neck in terms of their promotion which was why they had most of the attention.

"Which one do you think is going to win?"

"I think Tale of the Sword? Zen Entertainment is really good at themes like these and have mastered both story and gameplay. If they do it seriously, it must be really good."

"But Tale of the Sword made no innovations."

"How do you innovate? There have been so many Chinese themed games, and the ones who try and innovate fail miserably. Tale of the Sword is basically the best format for these games, you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you make changes to it!"

"But this format has been overdone. The core of the game is always the same, and the only thing that changed is the story. What's the point of a game if they all play out to be the same? If I'm just here for the story, I may as well read a novel or watch TV!"

"I'll try out Wulin Legend. Chen Mo seems quite genuine. And I haven't seen a Wuxia game for a long time, I should support it!"

"Yeah, I'm supporting it just because of the theme song!"

—

In forums within groups, the players were discussing the design and story of both of these games.

"Tale of the Sword's story is so good! I cried going through that!"

"Yeah, the ending made me feel so sad, but the story is so good!"

"Friends who were playing Wulin Legend, how is it going?"

"Oh, I'm still running around doing quests, I feel like I'm going to play it a second time…."

"Why, is that game that fun? Is it worth playing multiple times?"

"No, it's because I don't think I can beat it in one playthrough…"

"What skills did you guys pick? What am I supposed to do? I'm kind of confused…"

"I've done most of the quests now, I can only say that it's really complicated!"

"I have a notebook beside me when I'm playing this game, jotting down notes as I went. I have more than a dozen pages in notes now…"

"Really? Is it that crazy? Even if a game has some puzzle elements, it can't be ten pages worth of notes right?"

"Then you can write in on some toilet paper…"

"You guys will know once you play it. This game makes me feel dumb."

"I heard there's already a strategy by a tester from the experience store. Yeah, a streamer named Lin Xue waas streaming the game, I heard they've gotten two of the endings already."

"What does that mean, is there a third ending?"

"Three? Hehe, Chen Mo himself said that there are nearly ten endings."

"Huh? Ten?!"

"Yeah, and the ones Lin Xue got were the good and evil endings. The main character defeats all the good masters and was chosen as the leader of the guild, defeating the cultists at the end. In the evil ending, the main character joins the cult and exterminates all the different types of martial arts before finally killing the cultist leader to become the dictator."

"Really? Evil ending? My goodness, it's my first time hearing such unorthodox endings in a Wuxia game! But I like it!

"Am I playing the same game as you guys? Why was I defeated by chickens in the first village and obtained the title 'Chicken Warrior'?"

"Geez, stop mentioning that. I saw Lin Xue get the evil ending on her stream and it's crazy. I won't spoil it any further, so if you wanna know you'll have to watch it yourself. I'll just say that there is a lot of freedom given the player, much more than everybody expects."

"My goodness, you've managed to reel me in. Alright I'm downloading it!"

—

Wulin Legend and Tale of the Sword were both priced at fifty RMB as Chinese themed standalone games rarely went above this price.

Moreover, the purpose of these games wasn't to make a profit, but for the judges. There was no point in having a higher priced game just to anger the fans.

Tale of the Sword received many good reviews at the start as most players were there for the story, leaving a good review after experiencing the entire story.

But Wulin Legend had mixed reviews. The majority of them were five star reviews, but there were one and two star reviews among them. The main complaint was that the game was too difficult to learn and many players couldn't figure the game out. They would die unexpectedly in the first playthrough and were really mad.

But the popularity of Tale of the Sword died down soon after as there were no innovative gameplay in the game. Although the story was great, there wasn't much to talk about a few days after beating the game.

Moreover, many players noticed that the game difficulty, level design, and story were all done with the judges in mind, and the flaws were easy to discover. The game was quite fun initially leaving behind a good impression, but that was as good as it got, and had nothing following that initial hihg.

This game angered some fans too, you're ignoring the players just to please the judges?

On the other hand, Wulin Legend got more and more popular. There were more and more posts about it on the forums. Strategy and tutorial videos were also getting increasingly popular!

Yao Yu, the designer of Tale of the Sword, was getting worried. What is wrong with Wulin Legend. How come it didn't die down after all this time, but actually increased in popularity?